


The End Page Is Where You Write In the Rest

by anglophileprussian



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-11 14:05:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anglophileprussian/pseuds/anglophileprussian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For someone to succeed, several others have to fail. For Jack Kelly to win the strike, people have to lose themselves to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End Page Is Where You Write In the Rest

**Author's Note:**

> Just leaving this for you guys. Contains multiple, non-canon pairings and vague, overly artistic language (if the title didn't tip you off on that account).

It was an accusation.

_“Have you ever tried being happy?”_

Jack hadn’t thought about it before.

\---

They shut Crutchie in the back room, fearful that his fever would spread to the other children. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. He didn’t want to. He wasn’t sure how he could still be disappointed but he was. He wished he blamed Jack. He wished.

The view from the window was not of Santa Fe, but there were bars the same color as the skyscrapers staining the sky. There was no forward or backward, each hour out of order when he managed to remain conscious enough to see it. Jack came to the window but was not allowed in.

It was a long way down.

\---

Jack kept his drawings rolled up by his bed. Katherine wasn’t sure what she was expecting.

There were no pictures of her. She wished she was disappointed.

The hushed line on a tired face. The rough shading of a long day. Every stroke showed the artist as much as the subject and maybe that was the point. She saw a boy who missed a family he’d never had. Someone lost in a world too small for him. A young man trapped in his own fear.

Nothing suggested a boy who could love her. Who even knew how.

There were voices from bellow and footsteps on the ladder. She picked her favorite and smiled at him.

_“These are really good.”_

She said. “Where do I fit?” is what she didn’t.There was no room on that roof for her.

\---

_“I don’t get it. What’s Santa Fe got that New York ain’t?”_

“Why aren’t we good enough?”

Jack gives David a lot of questions he doesn’t have answers to. Opens a lot of doors whose doorframes are bigger than they should be, that let too much out and can never close again. Les can be remolded but David is finished. There is no going back now.

Jack thinks he can always leave. Retry everything. The rest of them, they’re cemented into the damn city while Jack rises up without them.

Jack’s got potential. The rest have a low life expectancy.

\---

_“You’ve got an ace up your sleeve. Wherever you go I’ll be there right by your side.”_

It’s a lie. Not that it matters anyway.

\---

They tag-team because they need Jack back. They want the same thing. They just don’t say the last part out loud. David doesn’t mention his family is going hungry. Katherine doesn’t mention her father.

They both need Jack to need them. For a few minutes, it seems like he does.

\---

_“Tell me how quitting does Crutchie any good.”_

He fumbles. Stutters. They’ve won only because they’ve already lost.

\---

Crutchie has fallen many times before.

There was the first one. When his name was still ‘Brian’.

There were all the times when Jack forgot. When he walked a little too fast and Crutchie couldn’t help speeding up too. When he hadn’t gotten the hand of it yet. He'd stumble but it was alright because there was someone right there to catch him.

And then there was the last one. Crutchie had his land legs back, or as much as they’d ever be, but Jack remembered now. Somehow that makes it worse.

Jack had been all ready to walk right down to the station and Crutchie would have followed him.

\---

_“Don’t you get it? We can’t help it.”_

There was something brilliant about David when he's angry. Katherine envied him, the easy way words came to him. She couldn't have put it better herself.

Because they were burning. Burning all the way down until they were stumps for some boy who shouldn’t have mattered.

She sits with him because she has options and he doesn’t. Rests her head on his shoulder and wishes for the both of them.

\---

_“If only things were different?”_

In two months he would say the exact same thing. The first time Katherine thought that she was enough. The second time, she knew that she couldn’t be it. His attention was already wandering. She’d really never had it.

\---

There’s a moment that everyone misses. When Jack must have looked at the three of them and made his choice, without even realizing it.

Jack was locked in a cage of his own creation. No matter where he runs, he’d always find himself trapped. Runs into himself and start all over again. Eventually he comes to realize that there is no better place than where he is.

There is a moment in which Jack corners him against the wall in an ally somewhere. Where they kiss and kiss and the crutch just falls over, forgotten for a little while. This moment is not missed.

David backs away slowly and sells the rest of his papers.

\---

They meet for dinner that night. Jack can't seem to stop smiling. Katherine and David smile back.

\---

Happiness blinds Jack from realizing that David and Katherine are giving him space. Giving them space. When he notices he is thankful. Crutchie is kind enough to not correct him.

\---

Pulitzer likes David. No one sure who is more surprised: Jack, Katherine, or David. David came to visit Jack at The World one day, bumped into Pulitzer, and got into an argument. One minute they were shouting and the next David is being shown his desk. Sometimes he's invited to dinner. Brings home dessert for his family. Wonders what the hell he's doing.

\---

Jack smiles when Katherine and David fight. The two of them are so good at beating him that it’s nice to see them argue with each other for a change. Jack will rest his head on Crutchie’s shoulder and watch the two of them. The two smartest people he knows with their big words; he never knows who he wants to win but he likes to egg them on anyway.

Sometimes he asks how the two of them got to be such good friends. They say it’s because they bonded over trying to handle Jack Kelly. Crutchie always chimes in and says it’s enough to make friends out of the worst enemies.

They don't laugh. One day, it will be funny.


End file.
